[Program]

Nasuno - Fire Fox - (composed by Yamada-kengyo)

Meikyo for shamisen and shakuhachi (composed by Seiho Kineya)

Koto-Uta (composed by Toshio Hosokawa)

Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto, shamisen

[Guest perfomer] James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi

[ Four Seasons in New York concert series]

New York’s music scene reflects the diverse and vibrant culture of the city. Yoko Reikano Kimura began this concert series in the fall of 2015. As a Japanese instrumentalist, Kimura hopes to introduce the brilliance of traditional Japanese music, which is still being passed on to future generations after many centuries. Starting with the 2018-19 season, the series has featured contemporary pieces composed by living composers as well. Since the first concert, over 50 works from the classical repertoire have been introduced in the concert series. Please come and experience the sounds of koto, shamisen and shakuhachi. For more information about the past events, please visit here.

Co-presented by CRS(Center for Remembering and Sharing) and Yoko Reikano Kimura| Supported by Hogaku Journal, Mar Creation, Inc.

[About the special guest]

James Nyoraku [如楽] Schlefer has been playing shakuhachi for over 40 years. He first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working as a free lance flute player and pursuing his Master's degree in musicology. He received the shakuhachi Dai-Shi-Han certificate in 2001, and his second Shi-Han certificate in 2008, from the Mujuan Dojo in Kyoto. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood and BAM, as well as multiple venues across the country and in Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and Europe. Schlefer established his own dojo in NYC in 1996. He taught shakuhachi at Columbia University for a decade, teaches a broad spectrum of Western and World music courses at New York City College of Technology (CUNY), and performs and lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States. As a composer, Schlefer has written multiple chamber and orchestral works combining Japanese and Western instruments as well as numerous pieces solely for traditional Japanese instruments. In December 2015, he was recognized by Musical America Worldwide as one of their “30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers” for his work both as a composer and Artistic Director of Kyo-Shin-An Arts. Website

[About Yoko Reikano Kimura]

Yoko Reikano Kimura [木村伶香能], koto and shamisen, has concertized in about 20 countries around the world based in New York and Japan. The New York Times described her playing and singing as “superb.”

As a koto soloist, Kimura premiered Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto:Genji (13 string koto version)with the Euclid String Quartet. Kimura has continued to champion Hagen's concerto with several string quartets, the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, and New York based ensemble, INTERWOVEN. In 2021, Kimura gave the Japan premiere performance with the string members of New Japan Philharmonic. Her performances have featured at renowned opera and theater works, such as Michi Wiancko’s Murasaki’s Moon, Piestro Mascagni’s Iris by American Symphony Orchestra, Yokoshi Yasuko’s Bell, Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi, and Heiner Goebbels’ Hashirigaki.

Kimura has performed at prestigious venues such as Warsaw Autumn Festival, Israel Festival, Nova Arts in Bordeaux, John F. Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum, United Nation, Japan Society, and Asia Society Texas Center. Her performances have broadcasted on NPR’s Performance Today, NHK-FM’s Hogaku no Hitotoki, and WKCR. Kimura is a founder of Duo YUMENO, with cellist Hikaru Tamaki. The duo received the Kyoto Aoyama Barock Saal Award in 2015, and featured at Chamber Music America’s 2016 National Conference. The duo held its tenth anniversary recital at Carnegie Hall in 2019.

Her awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition, the First prize at the 4th Great Wall International Music Competition, and a scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. Following her studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts, she studied at Institute of Traditional Japanese Music, an affiliate of Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan, where she was a faculty member until 2010. Her teachers include Kono Kameyama, Akiko Nishigata and Senko Yamabiko, a Living National Treasure. Website

Four Seasons in New York - Gems of Japanese Music - vol. 21